Inside the iPad: Samsung, Broadcom snag multiple wins

Report shows 64-bit memory path, three touch-screen chips

Rick Merritt, EE Times
(04/04/2010 12:04 AM EDT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Apple iPad sports an unusually high processor-to-memory channel, an abundance of touch-screen silicon and a novel case design, according to a teardown report from UBM TechInsights, a sister division of EE Times. The report shows Samsung and Broadcom are among the major silicon suppliers in the system released to much fanfare Saturday (April 3).
Apple's A4 processor is the most significant chip in the iPad, and holds the biggest surprise found in the teardown. The chip sports a 64-bit path to main memory, twice the width of the memory buses used on Apple iPhone and iTouch devices, "indicative of the need for richer graphics" in the iPad, said David Carey, vice president of technical intelligence at UBM TechInsights and author of the report.

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